Good soil is essential to a healthy lawn. This is one of the most important element for lawn care. Once grass is established, you can aerate and fertilize it, but actual soil base can’t be reworked. If you carefully prepare the soil layer in the beginning, your lawn can start with a good foundation.

Soils come in two basic types: Clay or Sandy. Heavy Soil, called clay or adobe, is easy to recognize but difficult to work with. If you squeeze a handful together, you’ll get a gummy plastic mass that won’t break apart even if you tap it with a shovel. Though clay soil is often rich in nutrients, it contains very little space for air, grass roots may refuse to grow because there is no sufficient supply of oxygen and often they drown because of poor drainage. Clay soils do have an advantage: slow drainage through tiny,compacted particles prevents nutrients from leaching out.

On the other hand, Sandy soil has huge particles that allow good aeration, quick passage of water, and rapid temperature change. Sandy soil provides plenty of air for plant roots, and the roots can spread easily, but here’s the rub: Water will pour right through the soil, taking with it any plant nutrients you’ve applied.

This entry was posted on Friday, June 13th, 2008 at 6:28 am and is filed under Soil, Lawn Care Tips, Gardening Tips. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.